c3c67eed   
   From: k.brisley.sedon@gmail.com   
      
   Taylor, a chara,   
      
   Not sure if I'd be of help here. I was told this story as a kid growing   
   up--that a great great grandfather had been a barrister for the Nine Famous   
   Irishmen. As a sign of thanks, they gave him an engraved snuff box, so the   
   story goes. I have some    
   documentation but not a sense of how to date it or to contextualize it. The   
   snuff box is real but I don't have it. The only names listed in the engraving   
   (aside from my twice-great grandfather) are Meagher, O'Donohoe, and McManus,   
   dated 1849.     
      
   Go n-éirí an t-adh leat   
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
   On Thursday, November 5, 2009 2:37:26 PM UTC-5, Taylor Kingston wrote:   
   > Recently I became aware of a story that's become very widespread on   
   > the Internet, pub menus, placemats, posters, etc.: "Nine Famous   
   > Irishmen." I append it at the end of this post.   
   >   At first I found it very attractive, but then I began reasearching   
   > its claims. It is riddled with errors! Very few of its claims are   
   > true. Some of the nine were never even arrested. Only four of the nine   
   > were ever convicted and transported, and not all to Australia. Only   
   > two of them attained any of the positions they are said to have   
   > attained, and most of them were dead well before 1874. One of them   
   > probably never even existed. Professor David Wilson of the University   
   > of Toronto, biographer of one of the nine, calls it "probably the   
   > greatest concentration of Irish-American myths in a single space."   
   >    
   >   What I'm trying to find out is: when, where and from whom did this   
   > story originate? I've tracked it back to at least 1974, but that was   
   > in a genealogical newsletter that was just repeating an already   
   > established "urban legend." So if anyone has a lead on where it came   
   > from, please post it here.   
   >    
   >   Taylor Kingston   
   >    
   >   NINE FAMOUS IRISHMEN   
   >    
   >   In the Young Irish disorders in Ireland in 1848 the following nine   
   > men were captured, tried, and convicted of treason against Her Majesty   
   > The Queen, and were sentenced to death: John Mitchell, Morris Lyene,   
   > Pat Donahue, Thomas McGee, Charles Duffy, Thomas Meagher, Richard   
   > O'Gorman, Terrence McManus, and Michael Ireland.   
   >   Before passing sentence, the judge asked if there was anything that   
   > anyone wished to say. Meagher, speaking for all, said: "My Lord, this   
   > is our first offense but not our last. If you will be easy with us   
   > this once, we promise, on our word as gentlemen, to try to do better   
   > next time. And next time -- sure we won't be fools to get caught!"   
   >   Thereupon the indignant judge sentenced them all to be hanged by the   
   > neck until dead, and drawn and quartered. Passionate protest from all   
   > the world forced Queen Victoria to commute the sentence to   
   > transportation for life to far wild Australia.   
   >   In 1874, word reached the astounded Queen Victoria that the Sir   
   > Charles Duffy who had been elected Prime Minister of Australia was the   
   > same Charles Duffy who had been transported 25 years before. On the   
   > Queen's demand, the records of the rest of the transported men were   
   > revealed and this is what was uncovered:   
   >    
   >   THOMAS FRANCIS MEAGHER, Governor of Montana   
   >   TERENCE McMANUS, Brigadier General, U.S. Army   
   >   PATRICK DONAHUE, Brigadier General, U.S. Army   
   >   RICHARD O'GORMAN, Governor General of Newfoundland   
   >   MORRIS LYENE, Attorney General of Australia, in which office Michael   
   > Ireland succeeded him   
   >   THOMAS D'ARCY MCGEE, Member of Parliament, Montreal, Minister of   
   > Agriculture and President of Council, Dominion of Canada   
   >   JOHN MITCHELL, prominent New York politician. This man was the   
   > father of John Purroy Mitchell, Mayor of New York at the outbreak of   
   > World War I.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)